Pete's comments on .NET, politics, humor, and everything else wrong in the world.

11/29/2007

Warning!: blockdelete.com- Protect Your Ass!

Those nasty spammers have apparently reappeared, using a private domain registration through GoDaddy.

What they do is capture your Windows Live Messenger credentials under the ruse that they will show you all your blocked contacts (which is easy enough to do yourself with libraries like DotMsn - without the security risks).

What they don't tell you is that if you do this, your account is now compromised -- and they'll send every one of your contacts a message (since it's your credentials, it appears from you, a trusted contact) that tells you to go visit their site and sucker for it too. There's only one solution if you suckered for it - you have to change your Live.com password immediately.

Just look at this:

"The longly[sic] awaited feature for MSN Messenger, completely for free[sic]!"

When you click on their Privacy page link, you get nada! What a scam. Unfortunately, from reading the newsgroup and forum posts, it appears that thousands of people are getting suckered for this social engineering scam from these total scumbags.

I'm seriously considering complaining to Google about this, because the bastards have a Google Adsense ad at the bottom of their page. Clearly a violation of Google's TOS. If enough people complain, Google will ban them and they'll have no financial incentive any longer. Incidentally, Google has recently begun actually soliciting reports of "bad" web sites. The form to do it is here. You can also visit Stop Badware, a consumer protection site sponsored by Google and other major firms.

We live in a dangerous world. Even cyberspace is dangerous. Protect Your Ass.

Getting the right client-side ID for ASP.NET ControlsThis is really simple stuff, but judging by the number of forum and newsgroup posts I've seen asking the same question over and over again, it may not be very obvious to many newer developers: The ASP.NET infrastructure "mangles" control ID's based on the container hierarchy they are in. So for example if you have a Master Page and a Page that uses it, and you put a TextBox "TextBox1" on it, that's not what you'll get at the client side in the browser. So any javascript you write that is looking for "TextBox1" will fail. Here's the correct way to ensure that your script won't fail:

About Me

I am a former Microsoft C# .NET MVP (Most Valuable Professional) for 10 years , author, and UnEducator based in the Orlando Florida area. I write mostly about .NET, formerly for eggheadcafe and currently at my programming blog at peterbromberg.net. I'm an ex-jazz musician and stockbroker who dreams of being a philanthropist and paying less in taxes. I believe in the US Constitution and free-market "Austrian" economic theories. I'm also a "climate realist" and believe in good science, which is never "settled".

As a computer programmer with over 25 years of hands-on experience in designing and developing large-scale enterprise applications, I am an expert at solving business problems.

Some subjects that I am interested in are: Art, Jazz, Classical, Photography, Politics, Science, Psychology, Economics. One of my hobbies is creating digital photocollage with my original photographs and Autodesk Maya software.

NOTE: I occasionally make controversial posts or comments in order to stir debate.My comments are my own, and do not represent in any way those of any employer or client, past or present. I encourage civil debate, whether you agree with me or not, but if you engage in ad-hominem personal insults on one of my posts you will be blocked in a New York second.

Excerpts provided by me are pursuant to the Fair Use Doctrine for educational and discussion purposes per Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, Copyright Law.

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.